Flappy Bird Copies Being Rejected By Apple and Google

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Flappy Bird Copies Being Rejected By Apple and Google

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Despite the fact that the original title was removed from the App Store, the Flappy Bird phenomenon shows no sign of slowing down. The App Store’s top charts are currently filled with clones that are just as addicting and frustrating.

According to various developers, Apple and Google have reportedly started rejecting any games that have been submitted with the word “flappy” in their title.

Ken Carpenter, a Vancouver-based game developer, says Apple rejected his app called “Flappy Dragon” from the App Store. Below are the reasons for the rejection according to the App Store Review Guidelines:

Reasons:

22.2: Apps that contain false, fraudulent or misleading representations will be rejected

22.2

We found that your app, and/or its metadata, contains content that could be misleading to users, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.

We found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app.

Carpenter sent out this tweet after he found out his game had been rejected.

This is just not my fucking week: Rejected. “We found your app name attempts to leverage a popular app.” Which app? FB doesn’t exist!?!?!

Currently, the App Store’s top charts include two Flappy Bird clones, “Splashy Fish” and “Ironpants” which are positioned at #1 and #2, which do not contain the word “flappy” in their title.

MobileDevHQ has provided a chart which shows the average number of changes in the iOS Top Charts. As you can see in the chart below, the Top Charts were effectively frozen as of February 14. The chart soon returned to normal showing that it was not the effect of an algorithm change on Apple’s end.

Apple is not the only company who has decided to reject Flappy Bird clones from the app store. Carpenter, Kuyi Mobile, and other developers have all stated that Google is also rejecting games that include the word “flappy” in the title.

Carpenter said:

“The first time I assumed it was because I included a phrase about ‘Flappy Dragon’ being the best flapping game to play now that ‘Flappy Bird’ is dead. My app was originally published with no issue and was online and searchable for a few hours.”

Within 24 hours of the email the search giant removed the app from the Google Play Store. Carpenter went on to remove “flappy” from the title and resubmitted the app to Google. Even with the word “flappy” removed from the title, Google removed the app from the Google Play Store a few hours after it was resubmitted.

Developers have been trying to jump on the success of Flappy Bird, but Apple and Google are trying to prevent that. It may not be long before we see both companies pulling apps for copying the concept of Flappy Birds, regardless of their title.